Watch: Audi Engineers Use Virtual Reality to Support Manufacturing Engineering Efforts

March 15, 2023

March 15, 2023

Welcome to MetalForming Automotive, the latest enewsletter from MetalForming magazine and the Precision Metalforming Association. In each monthly MetalForming Automotive you’ll find a variety of news and information from this quickly evolving industry, including links to the latest information from our industry partners: AISI, Automation Alley, CAR and MEMA (formerly OESA).

Please share any questions or comments by emailing editorial director Brad Kuvin.

Audi has begun to implement virtual tools in its planning and training efforts, as noted in an Automotive Manufacturing Solutions article, including testing the effects of component and assembly tolerances of different designs, and helping manufacturing teams to influence engineering plans at an early stage. In this 90-sec. video, learn how the automaker used virtual reality and other digital tools to launch model updates in Mexico; it also plans to use the digital tools to carry out a facelift of the Q3 model in Hungary.

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Ready for Viewing: Great Designs in Steel Agenda, Highlighting EV Architectures

It's time to start planning your day for Great Designs in Steel 2023, coming May 24. A preliminary agenda is now available, featuring keynote speakers Lourenco Goncalves, Cleveland-Cliffs chairman, president and CEO; and Chris Michaels, General Motors director of global body structures and integrated systems. Presentations are organized into three tracks—EV Architecture, Materials, and Welding/Joining/Manufacturing.

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PMA Membership

Position your company as an industry leader when you utilize PMA resources—ITR Econ Trends reports, trade publications, One Voice and FABTECH trade shows. A PMA membership will provide your company and all of its employees with a range of valuable industry resources that are designed to help you become more connected, more informed, more efficient, more competitive and ultimately more profitable.

MetalForming LIVE on the Shop Floor—Robots Working in Metal Forming Operations

Late last year, metal former Clips & Clamps, Plymouth, MI, fired up a new multi-robot production cell—by far the biggest and most ambitious automation project ever undertaken by the nearly 70-yr.-old company—that the firm expects to soon pump out 3.5 million automotive-interior assemblies/yr. If you’re even a little excited to see this three-robot six-process cell in action, you’ll join the MetalForming magazine team for an up-close look when we present MetalForming LIVE on the Shop Floor, April 25, 2:00 p.m. ET.

The Partnership Between the U.S. Steel and Automotive Industries

The Automotive Program of the American Iron and Steel Institute consists of steel-producing member companies that supply most of the steel requirements for the automotive industry. The American steel industry is at the fore in the discovery and implementation of technology initiatives that improve steelmaking-process efficiency for quality, productivity and unique attributes of automotive steel products. Here’s an exhaustive review of the progress made, and what’s to come!

Inflation Reduction Act Spurring EV-Production Activity

Various news outlets are reporting Audi’s interest in building an electric-vehicle (EV) manufacturing plant in the United States, due to favorable tax incentives included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Audi currently does not have a U.S. plant and so is not eligible for any IRA tax incentives and subsidies available for vehicles sourced and made in North America, including a $7500 consumer tax credit to buyers of North American-made EVs.